Thursday, August 31, 2006

Stanford V1.0 ready for release

I'm done with the Stanford essays folks. I am done!!! This has been one draining long ride. Exactly because of which i am not sure whether i am really done or i am tired of these essays and have considered it to be closed! If it is the former, so be it. If it is the latter - i don't find how i can realize that by reviewing the essays in the same mind set. So - atleast for some days to come, the essays remain closed/complete.

But for all that i see now, the essays have come out well. I have answered all self imposed questions in essay 1 and essay 2. I think that the first essay fits within the unified theme it is supposed to have. I think that i have covered major incidents of my life in this essay and i think that the essay flows well. I think that the first essay which presents a good picture of me and also answers some of my "why this career" questions. I think that the second essay presents my career goals neatly. I think that it also justifies these career choices, which is more important because of my shift in industry. I think that i can rate the "why Stanford" section between "Above Average" and "Good". I obviously have to work more on it, but that's the same status for every other school. I think that the two other essays have specific answers and related incidents to support the theories i speak. I think that i have done well.

But it is all in the "I think" stage. I feel like i am in a heavy hangover. I have been working on this essay for really long and i have to shrug it off my neurons to review it properly. I want to review this essay atleast once and fix all possible stuff before i send it out to my two reviewers. They sure have an interesting job with this really personal set of essays :)

So - what next?!?!

I have to finish the ethics essay of Harvard by Saturday. I also plan to write the three micro mini essays of Chicago by the weekend. They sure are gonna be difficult to tackle, but the topics make them interesting. Clearly, there is no correct answer to these questions, but the task is daunting ONLY because of the word limit. Let's see how it goes :) If possible, i will also finish the interesting second essay of Chicago. That seems to be enough for the weekend. If all that goes well, next week will be spent on the all inclusive Chicago first essay. This is pretty straightforward and finishing all these essays before the next weekend seems to be highly possible. From then on, it will be the long reviewing and submission journey.

One of my recommenders had a over-the-coffee-table discussion abt the recommendation procedure. He was surprised at the effort that goes into the admission procedure and hence wanted to schedule a detailed discussion sometime next week. Another recommender returns from his vacation on Tuesday - i must have a similar discussion with him too. The third person has already done recos and might not need any such discussions, but i have to check with him too and give him the stuff he needs. Recos haven't progressed really, but i have a feeling that it can be finished by the second or third week of September.

That sums up the news for the day. See you all tomorrow - same time, same place!!!

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